Waimea United Church of Christ

Luke 13:10-17“Teaching Faith--Free From Bondage”

No, Saint
Luke, you cannot do that to us again!Have you ever been in a conversation with someone who is telling a great
story when all of the sudden they condense the story, passing by what YOU
really want to hear? It is so frustrating.

There is an
old Yiddish word that is used sometimes in American English: “Yada-yada-yada.”
So, Jesus was teaching in a synagogue, yada-yada-yada! No, I want to know what
Jesus was teaching! Do we not all want to know this? As Christians we hang our
faith on the Word of the Lord. Here we do not get to hear Jesus’ words.

This
reminds us of the fact that our Christian Bibles are extremely condensed. The
narrative that we get is almost more like an outline of the ministry of Jesus.
I have to compare everything we get in the Bible about Jesus to the fact that
every one of my sermons ever preached in this church is available online, plus
years of videos and pictures. That is just not right. Every word that Jesus has
ever uttered should be on the internet.

I hope
Jesus was teaching about love, joy, humility, grace, mercy, and ultimate faith
in God. I am sure he would have shared these concepts with his usual parables
that unfortunately Luke has left out here. Yada-yade instead.

Why does
St. Luke even bother mentioning, therefore, that Jesus was teaching in one of
the synagogues? Context matters!“One”
of the synagogues is mentioned. Which one? He is close to the Temple of
Jerusalem. Historical records show at least six synagogues nearby at that time.
There were a lot of synagogues then, and there still are today.

I was
talking with a stranger who asked me what my profession was. I told him that I
was a pastor. He responded: “Eh, Kauai choke church!” True, we have so many
churches on this island. So, this is like saying Jesus was teaching in a church
on Kauai! Still this is very hard to pinpoint where Jesus was.

It seems
that he was doing what we call “pulpit supply.” He was invited to come into the
synagogue to teach! That means that he was considered a worthy rabbi known to
the people. Like our churches today, not just anybody can come in to the church
on the Sabbath and start talking. The leader of the synagogue obviously wanted
Jesus to be there.

So, if
Jesus walks in the front door of our church while I am preaching, I get to stop
talking at you all and let him give you the Word this morning! However, as we
read from our text today: yes, Jesus is invited in, but then the leader of the
synagogue makes a point of correcting Jesus by saying to all there that Jesus
should not be doing this healing on the Sabbath. Jesus is somehow breaking the
Law of Moses!

What is
Jesus doing that is so upsetting to this leader? By the language in the Greek,
it is clear that Jesus is merely untying his shoelace. I know that the text
does not say anything about Jesus’ footwear, but the verb that is used to
describe the healing of this woman is λυω in the Greek. It
literally translates as “to loose” in English. I like the fact that the new
King James’ Version bible actually goes back and uses this old English word
rather than using the term we have in our pew bibles “to set free.”

I know that
most of us do not remember learning how to tie our shoes. Especially here in
Hawaii this is a rare task to begin since most of the time we wear slippers.
However, if you can imagine back to that moment when your mother or father
taught you how to lace a pair of shoes, you might recall that it was not that
easy. It was work. Yes, tying a shoe is work; therefore, it might be considered
something you would not do on the Sabbath. Right? No work on the Sabbath.

Is untying
your shoelace work? Is loosing a bowknot work?You just pull one end.Long
before we were ever taught how to tie a bow, we knew how to pull the one end to
get our shoes off. That is why our mothers were hunched over our feet in the
morning tying our shoes for us! But, in the evening, we literally kicked our
shoes off. Kicking our shoes off is the exact opposite of work.

Jesus is
loosing the illness from a woman! This seems to be as easy for him as untying a
shoelace, just pulling it off. The spirit is instantly loosed from the woman.
Jesus puts his hands over the woman and pulls the evil spirit loose.

We do not
come to church, or become followers of Jesus, in order that we be bound up with
conventions, rules, or the bondage of religion. We come to church to get
loosed. I invite you all to get loose right now. Go ahead, let loose! For
freedom you were made free by Christ (Galatians 5:1). Believing in Jesus is not
a burden. It is being set free from bondage. ‘

Jesus
himself says that it is like being tied up as an animal waiting to be loosed to
go take a long drink of water. This is something that God wants us to do as it
proves our humanity and our lovingness towards God’s creation. It is certainly
not breaking any religious edicts.

For
eighteen years this woman was hunched over by the burden of a spirit of evil. I
mention this again because what the leader of the synagogue said in his
argument against Jesus is strangely still operative today in our world.No offense meant to our medical professionals,
but it is nearly impossible for us today to see a doctor on Sunday for healing
of a chronic illness. Indeed if it is an emergency, then the ER is ready and
willing; however, if you have been sick with a disease for 18 years, then you
will have to see the doctor on a conventional weekday visit. To us today, that
is not unreasonable.

We must
however take into consideration that eighty percent of the population in that
day were living from day to day by their immediate earnings. That means that
taking a day off to visit a doctor (or Jesus in this case) means potentially
having nothing to eat that day.

Since all
work stops on the Sabbath anyway, it was the perfect time to seek Jesus out—at
least in so far as the woman would not miss any income.

Okay, what
should it mean to be “hunched by a spirit”?I was thinking about this and praying of course when the spirit brought
to me this image of a student who used to attend the high school bible club.
She has since moved away, but I recall clearly how it was that when she walked
anywhere, her countenance was fallen. She always was looking down at the ground
rather than up at the horizon or in people’s eyes. I think only once or twice
in years of knowing her (she was also in the middle school group) did I have
the chance to see right into her eyes.And that, was when she was angry.

This high
school student had no physical reason to be hunched over always looking at the
ground. Her issue was totally psychological, sociological, or as we like to say
“spiritual.” I believe the woman whom Jesus laid hands on that day actually had
a medical/physical condition, but my point is that what Jesus did suggest was a
lifting of a burdensome spirit by laying on of hands.

I want to
be clear on one point as well: The word in the Greek, επι, does
mean to put the hands “over” another person, not necessarily right on and
touching that other person. In other words, you can pray over somebody, lay
hands over somebody, but not have to actually touch that person.

We have
biblical instruction on this in James 5:14 that states that when one is ill,
then the elders of the church should anoint that person and pray “over” him or
her.This is important because if that
person who is ill is not right before us in the church, so that we cannot
anoint, then we still have the power to heal by praying over that person’s life
even from a distance. You do not have to be even in the same room to “lay hands
over someone in prayer” who needs burdens to be lifted.

Yes, my
wife is in Malaysia right now, but I can still lay hands over her in prayer. My
daughters are in Washington; I can still lay hands over them in prayer. All of
our various hanai children who live all over the planet; we can lay hands in
prayer over them! Since Kauai is 2,500 miles away from the next major landmass,
I will say that we have to have the longest prayer arms on the planet in order
to lay hands on those in need of being set loose from their burden of ill.

This last
week I got an incredible letter from my Uncle Olaf in Germany who described in
great detail how he felt his life suddenly touched by God. He had a religious
awakening that he felt he needed to share with me. I have prayed over his life
for this religious awakening ever since I lived in Germany in 1979 and on!Thirty-nine years of prayers! Finally I have
this sense that his burdens have been lifted! He has been loosed by the Spirit
of God.

What are doing in our prayer lives if we are
not laying hands over others and setting their spirits free? Once the woman
stood straight up again, everyone there in that place and time rejoiced for the
healing. That is why we rejoice still today in our worship! God is lifting our
burdens, healing our spirits, and setting us free.